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Leaded gasoline. In my 70s-era car, I want to use it instead of unleaded, since it improves my fuel economy significantly. However, the total cost of the lead i
by cecilpl 13y ago
Leaded gasoline. In my 70s-era car, I want to use it instead of unleaded, since it improves my fuel economy significantly. However, the total cost of the lead in the environment far outweighs the economic benefit. We needed regulation to fix this.
Thalidomide. Regulation prevented thousands of deformities in the US by imposing a proof-of-safety barrier before the drug was allowed to be sold. Other countries were not so lucky as to have that regulation in place.
More to the point... How, as an individual, am I supposed to make an informed judgement about the relative risks of MtGox vs Bitstamp, say? I have no inside information about how those companies operate. There's a huge information asymmetry problem that regulation alleviates.
- crazy1van 13y ago> There's a huge information asymmetry problem that regulation alleviates. How does regulation alleviate it?
- normloman 13y agoBy forcing companies to disclose the truth about their product.
- mycroft-holmes 13y agoWe could easily go back and forth with cases that show the market regulating itself or bad events that happened when there wasn't any regulation in place - not because of it. Anyways, to the more important point. You would make a judgement based on their website and feedback from sources such as HN, Reddit, Twitter, word-of-mouth, etc. That's how we all make decisions based on nearly everything we use regardless of whether or not it's regulated by the government. And if it's a new service where you don't have access to credible sources, you make a judgment based on the level of risk you're comfortable with. That's exactly why some people are willing to give emails or phone numbers for 'Show HN' posts on here and others are not. Some don't care so much and really want to try the product. Others want to wait to ensure they are credible.